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Publications

Publications from the staff of the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Filter Total Items: 2499

Impact origin of the Avak Structure, Arctic Alaska, and genesis of the Barrow gas fields Impact origin of the Avak Structure, Arctic Alaska, and genesis of the Barrow gas fields

Geophysical and subsurface geologic data suggest that the Avak structure, which underlies the Arctic Coastal Plain 12 km southeast of Barrow, Alaska, is a hypervelocity meteorite or comet impact structure. The structure is a roughly circular area of uplifted, chaotically deformed Upper Triassic to Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks 8 km in diameter that is bounded by a ring of...
Authors
C.E. Kirschner, Arthur Grantz, M. W. Mullen

Introduction to special section on the California-Arizona crustal transect: CACTIS, Part 3 Introduction to special section on the California-Arizona crustal transect: CACTIS, Part 3

The CACTIS (California‐Arizona Crustal Transect Interim Synthesis) workshop in May 1988 brought researchers together in Flagstaff, Arizona, to discuss the geologic evolution and crustal structure of the southern Cordillera between the San Andreas fault in southeastern California and the Colorado Plateau in Arizona [Sass et al., 1988]. The first set of papers resulting from the workshop...
Authors
R.W. Simpson, Keith A. Howard, Gordon B. Haxel

Faulting and seismic activity Faulting and seismic activity

This chapter traces some of the ideas and concepts leading to the current understanding of the process of faulting and earthquake generation, gives examples of engineering geology investigations contributing to that understanding, describes some engineering projects that have been strongly influenced by the process, and suggests needed research. Each of these topics is discussed in...
Authors
Manuel G. Bonilla

The Marina District, San Francisco, California: Geology, history, and earthquake effects The Marina District, San Francisco, California: Geology, history, and earthquake effects

A northwest-trending valley in the bedrock surface is buried by firm Pleistocene bay clay, a dense Pleistocene sand layer, soft Holocene bay sediments, loose to dense Holocene beach and dune sands, and artificial fill that have an aggregate maximum thickness of about 90 m (300 ft). Artificial filling of a cove at the site of The Marina District proceeded gradually from the late 1860s to...
Authors
Manuel G. Bonilla

The world landslide problem The world landslide problem

Thousands of people may be killed by landslides each year and property damage may be in the tens of billions of dollars, but the techniques for recognizing and coping with landslides are well developed. Landslides are generally more manageable and predictable than earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and some storms, but only a few countries have taken advantage of this knowledge to reduce...
Authors
E. E. Brabb

A reinterpretation of the timing, position, and significance of part of the Sacramento Mountains detachment fault, southeastern California A reinterpretation of the timing, position, and significance of part of the Sacramento Mountains detachment fault, southeastern California

A contact previously considered to be part of the Sacramento Mountains detachment fault (SDF), exposed in the Sacramento Mountains metamorphic core complex, is reinterpreted as an unconformity between Tertiary rhyolite of Eagle Peak and cataclastically deformed crystalline lower-plate rocks. This reinterpretation is based on outcrop-scale topographic relief and the absence of deformation...
Authors
Carol Simpson, Janet Schweitzer, Keith A. Howard

An axial view of a metamorphic core complex: Crustal structure of the Whipple and Chemehuevi Mountains, southeastern California An axial view of a metamorphic core complex: Crustal structure of the Whipple and Chemehuevi Mountains, southeastern California

A 135‐km‐long, NW‐SE trending, seismic refraction/wide‐angle reflection profile provides a unique along‐strike view of the crustal structure of a belt of metamorphic core complexes in southeastern California: the Whipple, Chemehuevi, and Sacramento mountains metamorphic core complexes. Interpretation of the seismic data was done by two‐dimensional forward modeling of travel times and...
Authors
J. M. Wilson, Jill McCarthy, R.A. Johnson, Keith A. Howard

Franciscan Complex, Coast Range ophiolite and Great Valley sequence: Pacheco Pass to Del Puerto Canyon, California Franciscan Complex, Coast Range ophiolite and Great Valley sequence: Pacheco Pass to Del Puerto Canyon, California

This field trip covers part of the Diablo Range and adjacent San Joaquin Valley of central California (Fig. 1 ). The core of the range is made up of rocks of the Franciscan Complex, flanked by Coast Range ophiolite (CRO) and Great Valley sequence (GVS). The Franciscan Complex in this area consists of deformed and metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks containing fossils of Late...
Authors
Allan P. Bennison, M. Clark Blake, B. F. Cox, William P. Elder, W. G. Ernst, Tekla Harms, T. H. Nilsen

Seismic reflection/refraction mapping of faulting and regional dips in the eastern Alaska Range Seismic reflection/refraction mapping of faulting and regional dips in the eastern Alaska Range

We present the results of a Trans‐Alaska Crustal Transect (TACT) investigation of the upper 2–5 km of the eastern Alaska Range in the vicinity of the Denali fault based on seismic reflection/refraction data, laboratory measurements of rock velocities, and structural mapping. The Denali fault is a major dextral slip structure mappable for more than 2000 km separating the Wrangellia and...
Authors
Thomas M. Brocher, Warren J. Nokleberg, N.I. Christensen, William J. Lutter, Eric L. Geist, M. A. Fisher

U–Pb geochronology of Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary plutons in the northern Coast Mountains batholith U–Pb geochronology of Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary plutons in the northern Coast Mountains batholith

U–Pb geochronologic studies demonstrate that steeply dipping, sheetlike tonalitic plutons along the western margin of the northern Coast Mountains batholith were emplaced between ~83 and ~57 (perhaps ~55) Ma. Less elongate tonalitic–granodioritic bodies in central portions of the batholith yield ages of 59–58 Ma, coeval with younger phases of the tonalitic sheets. Large granite...
Authors
G.E. Gehrels, W. C. McClelland, S.D. Sampson, Patchett P. Jonathan, David A. Brew
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